Death and Life
by Frozenheart49
Summary: 1000 years after a war that nearly destroyed Skylands,the Darkness started returning, can the Elements band together and vanquish it again? Or will the fire's of an ancient war start burning again?
1. The Ancient War of Skylands

Enter Skylands

"Long ago, there were eight fractions. Each faction was fighting for one goal. To conquer Skylands. A land of peace and happiness. The factions each held an element.

They were…

Air. Earth. Fire. Water. Tech. Magic. Life and Undead

Each fought for control over Skylands and it's prosperity, but each element had a specific opposite. They fought, until the Darkness came.

The Darkness was a force that was so powerful, that the 8 put aside their differences and joined against the common enemy. Against all odds, they managed to return the darkness to it's shadowy pit, and with it, their war.

With the blood of so many split, and the hope of a better life, they agreed to live in peace, and with that peace came the Portal Masters, and together they built their homes into the world we know today…"

Hugo closed his book.

"And that is that is how we came to know Skylands as they are now."

It had been nearly 1000 years since that long since fought war, and that peace still stood.

However there was still slight discontent between two of the ancient factions, specifically those of the Undead and Life.

They hated each other more then the rest hated their opposite.

The Life argued that growth and warmth was better over the cold death the Undead stood for, while the Undead argued that now matter what, death shall be met by all, at one time or another.

They fought each other more fiercely then they cared to admitted, and when the Darkness came, they didn't focus solely on it…

Even after the hardships, they made an un-easy agreement to keep the fires of war from burning again.

Slowly, the Darkness has been getting stronger…attacks are getting more frequent, and the Portal Master, Eon, has summoned the greatest warriors to come together to fight this supposedly defeated menace…


	2. The Warriors

Portal Master

With attacks from monsters growing so frequent, when the call for heroes went out, the call was almost immediately answered.

Skylanders of all kinds came, friendships were forged quickly among the warriors, even boundaries that started battles were forgotten.

A purple dragon who hailed from the land of magic approached a mysterious green girl.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"I am not one who uses names…" replied the elvin female.

"Okay…? Well, my name is Spyro."

"You can call me…Stealth Elf…"

"Nice to meet you SE"

"SE?" She was surprised that this little dragon talked to her as if they've known each other for years.

"Hm?" He did not sense her confusion.

The groups were silence when the portal that brought them all there activated again, but with a dark and sinister glow to it.

From the portal appeared a warrior of bones, armed with a sword and shield. Followed by a black dragoness, and a specter who had a chain following him.

The final of these new warriors was a elvin woman, who looked only a year older then Stealth Elf. She had a dark presence around her, evil, malicious, but the Portal Master wouldn't summon such a person to be their ally…would he?

A figure appeared from the balcony of a great castle.

"I see everyone has finally arrived. Welcome, my name is Eon." bellowed the man.

"I would like to thank all of you for coming."

He told them why they were summoned, they were called upon to help fight the darkness that was slowly trying to take over.

They were given the choice to leave, but no one took it.

"If there are no further questions, and welcome my friends, and enjoy your time with us"

Eon gave his final words and left the warriors to meet each other.

It was like a child's first day of school. Everyone wondered about, introducing themselves to one another, becoming fast friends, the black dragoness took a fancy to Spyro, while the Specter floated around with the skeletal warrior following quietly behind. The shadowy woman was left to herself, and she didn't seem to have any intention of meeting the others.

Stealth Elf, who knew well that is she would need to know these people before she could even think about trusting her life in their hands. She chose to meet the dark sorceress first, to confirm her intentions.

She approached quietly, and said nothing, to and to her knowledge, without the woman's knowing she was there,

"Speak, or do not bother me." The woman had an icy cold tone in voice.

Stealth Elf could feel the darkness in her words, but did not say anything.

"I called Stealth Elf, you are…?"

"…my name is Hex…"

The two stood in silence for 10 minutes before SE decided to find someone else, which suited the solitary sorceress.

By the end of the day, friendships were born, crafted under the light of the Core of Light.


	3. Friendships

Friendships

Each of the Skylanders promised loyalty to each other, and everyone promised to respect each other, any dispute would be held in the Battle Arena, and attacking another Skylander otherwise would result in the defection from team. These were the only rules they were given to follow.

Most became fast friends, they all bonded into a team, even the Undead joined in, all except for Hex… Stealth Elf was one of the few who didn't immediately bond, she chose a select few who she trusted, among them were Spyro, Flameslinger, the others of Life, and the other women of the group, aside from Hex.

Most of the time they were free to do as they pleased, on occasion they were called forth for a mission, but right now was on the free times.

Stealth Elf was meditating in the training hall Eon had created for the Skylanders, Flameslinger was practicing his archery (more like relieving boredom, he never misses). They, being from the same clan of elves, became friends quicker then the others.

"Tell me…" started Flameslinger. "What do you think of this place and everyone?"

"It is…interesting. There are many people here who I'm sure that in time I could consider a family.""Does that include your sworn enemies?"

"I have no reason to trust that the Undead will strike against us…but I also don't believe that there is no chance of it. I especially don't trust-"

"Our Elvin sister?" He finished.

"…"

They both knew he was right. SE didn't trust Hex any less then the others of the Undead, but there was something about the sorceress that SE didn't like one but.

"She is evil, you should be able to see that, blindfolded or not."

"Although she uses a dark power, if Eon trusts her, then I shall not object."

"You say that now, but what when you wake up being used for a dark ritual or a sacrifice?"

"You are paranoid my friend." Flame chuckled to himself.

Flameslinger continued to shoot the targets, Stealth Elf decided to walk around.

"_There were many places available for them to go, so the chances of SE running into her was very low-"_ While SE was thinking, she ran into someone.

"…I apologize, I was not paying attention." She admitted, embarrassed.

"That was rather evident." Shot back the icy voice of the one she walked into.

"Oh, it's you."

The dark elf had already started to leave.

SE's blood began to boil over this.

SE walked back to the training hall to find Flameslinger still there, but now with Spyro, they were having a conversation when SE returned.

"Greetings my friends."

"Ah, there you are SE." Came from the purple dragon.

"Eon has a mission for us." Added Flameslinger.

"Well then, we shouldn't keep him waiting, should we?"

The three walked to the portal that led to Eon.

"Good luck you two." The dragon was gone in a purple and orange blur.

"Wait…if he is not our third member, then who is?"

"You shall see."

With that, the two transported to Eon for there mission, and their final member,


	4. The Mission pt1

The Mission

Stealth Elf's suspicions were confirmed when she and Flameslinger found themselves in Eon's study, where Hex stood waiting for them.

"So the two finally decided to show up." The dark Elvin sorceress mumbled to herself.

"I am glad you two could make it."

"Eon"

"Sir. If you don't mind my asking, why are you pair us with…her?" Asked SE

"You see young warrior," began the wise Eon. "I can sense there are some you who have yet to find a friendship and trust, as such, I want you to see just what can be accomplished upon forfeiting misconceptions and learning to trust those you must fight along side."

"And I?" Asked Flameslinger.

"I hope that you could keep them on task, and fighting our enemies, and not each other."

"I wouldn't waste my time fight her." Said Hex, and earning a scowl from SE.

"I will not fail Sir." She said, while keeping her glare on Hex

"Good…Now for the mission."

A viewing portal appeared before them, in it, they saw an ancient statue on an alter deep within a forest, a glowing red jewel embedded in it's forehead.

"This is statue is one of the last remaining testaments to an ancient and destructive tribe of beings that once dwelled in Skylands. The jewel you see is one of their last remaining chances to be resurrected. If that should happen, then the darkness, allied with those monsters, will be able to end the war before it begins."

"How do you stop that?" Asked the archer.

"We remove the stone before the stroke of midnight on the third night of it's return to the statue, and without the stone, the creature shall remain a statue" Answered Hex.

"Hex is absolutely correct, you still have time before then, but Cyclopes have been seen in the area, it's because of them the stone was able to find the statute in the first place."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go." Said SE

"As you wish" With that, a portal appeared, they entered, and their mission began.

* * *

><p>From the moment they entered, they went their separate ways. Stealth Elf always worked alone, Flameslinger concentrated better alone, and Hex didn't want them to get in her way. The agreed that thinning out the Cyclops's before going after the jewel would the best course of action.<p>

Stealth's POV

Due to her advanced physical state, Stealth chose to jump among the treetops to reach her destination, she took down any Cyclops's she came across, until she found a caravan of the one eye'd beasts, with them were with four of their mammoth monsters. She had to choose her targets carefully.

She started by luring the smaller weaker ones away from the group and taking them out, since they were moving, they're disappearances would go un-noticed for a short amount of time.

"This is too easy." She said after taking out her 7th foe, but no sooner did she say that did one of the mammoth monsters catch her scene and let out a sound that her two comrades could hear at the other end of the forest.

They Cyclops's wasted no time, the released the mammoths, SE quickly fled into tree tops, but the mammoths followed her, with their masters following behind them, she couldn't get away.

She was starting to get desperate, the large armed members of the one eye'd forces were throwing everything they could grasp, be it a rock, or a tree, or even their smaller companions, they wanted her stopped, and one managed to succeed, because in mid air from one tree to another, one of their rocks slammed into her, and together into a tree, it was a miracle she wasn't crushed between the two.

She plummeted, but as she fell, she looked into the gapping mauls of the mammoth, and saw death within.

"No…It won't end…not like this!"

She regained control in mid-air, she took out her blades and ended the life of one of the 4 beasts that tried to make her their meal, she didn't wait for the other three, she ran towards the army that was chasing her, with the mammoth's following her in close pursuit.

With her b;lades ready, she pounced on the first Cyclops she could, and used him to propel herself onto the next and brought him down, and as he fell, returned to the confused jumping board and took him down, but the mammoths finally caught up.

There was 4 rock chuckers, and 6 wielding a small axe, and the 3 mammoths. She couldn't risk attacking the mammoths despite being the currently biggest threat, but if she tried, she'd get an axe taking her head off or a rock crushing her, but they were waiting it out, SE was, at the moment, waiting for one of the smaller threats to make a move.

Two axe wielders broke the tiny deadlock and tried to charge her, one was ended, and the other thrown into a chucker, she vanished, and reappeared behind a chucker that had 3 axe men cowering in front of, a cut of the back of the shin, and a push took the three out, and SE finished the chucker.

"Five down, seven to go-" One of the mammoths began it's attack, it pounced on her, but before it could actually attack, she smashed her blade into it's eye, it howled an sound that had never been heard before and took off, taking her blade with it, embedded in his eye.

"No!"

Before she could even think about retrieving it, she had two more mammoths, two axe men, and 3 chuckers, she vanished and reappeared and steadily attacked each one of them, she knew if she tried taking them out one at a time, she'd be pounced and finished, she up three of her dummies to distract them when she removed one mammoth, two chuckers, and one of the axe wielders. With the odds now in her favor, she finished the duo, but not before having her stomach deeply slashed by claws.

Only after the battle was over did she start to feel the effects of almost being crushed, she body ached, she limped to a tree, she couldn't climb it anymore, she lacked her other blade, and she was too exhausted.

"I…I may not make it… -cough- my first mission as a Skylander…a failure…I guess I didn't deserve to be one after all…" She froze when she heard snarling, the mammoth she blinded returned, she took off into the forest, hoping to lose it, she fell a few times, and hid behind many tree's.

She hid, and held her breath, she heard the mammoth approach, she heard growling and sniffing, and the beast move out into a different part of the forest.

She let out a sigh, but then she realized she was dead, the beast pinned her to the tree she had hoped would save her.

"I -cough- guess this is my end…" she could smell blood and death on the breath of the mammoth "I guess your going to enjoy ripping my flesh off, after all, I blinded you…-cough-" She closed her eyes. "End it quick."

The beast lunged, but instead of feeling teeth rip her throat out, she felt the beast go limp.

"What…" She looked and found that something crushed the beast, freeing her.

"Come now. Your giving up already? I almost feel ashamed to be in this forest with you." A cold voice she knew well had broken SE's confusion.

"You…saved me? Why?"

"Well I didn't want to have to drag your body back to Eon."

SE could see that Hex carried a few of FS's arrows. Stealth grabbed her other blade and tackled Hex.

"What did you do to him!" yelled Stealth Elf, her blades inches from Hex's throat.

"Get off of me you fool!" A hand of bones rose from the ground and restrained SE.

"LET ME GO! I'LL KILL YOU!" Stealth was convinced that Hex betrayed them, that she sold Flameslinger out to the Cyclops's and kept his arrows as a trophy.

"Calm down." Hex said as she stood up, she was restraining herself. For now.

"Where is he! What did you do to him!" SE cried.

Hex slapped her.

"I said calm down!" Shocked, Stealth did as she was told.

"Now if your willing to behave and not tackle me again, I'll let you go."

Stealth nodded, she was at a loss of words. The hand released her and returned to the earth.

"What happened to Flame-"

"All in good time, for now, you need to rest and get your wounds treated."

"But-"

"No buts, it's shut up and listen time, understood?" SE gave in and did as Hex said.

After all, if she was going to kill her, she already would have done it…right?


End file.
